After breaking up with these heroes, Li Yi hurried back to Anxin.

Li Yi was very curious about the arrival of Chen Hongyan's master. You must know that Momen's ambition is science and technology. They have extremely high scientific research capabilities and precious ancient Chinese scientific and technological achievements.

The previous Lu Ping Gun surprised Li Yi. If it brings some good things this time, it will definitely be of great benefit to Anxin's development.

Now that he returned to Anxin, Li Yi visited the old patriarch, Mr. Zhao, Mr. Qian and others as usual. However, because he still wanted to go to the industrial zone to see the recent situation, he did not talk for too long.

Li Yi came to the industrial area, passed through two layers of guards, and entered the research and development area this time. There are important institutions such as the Ordnance Bureau and Research Institute here. Li Yi attaches great importance to the confidentiality of the work here, so the guards are also very tight.

As soon as he entered, he saw some blue light coming from the open space on one side. When he walked in, it turned out that there were pieces of blue stuff about the size of a fist, lying quietly on each other in the open space, under the setting sun.

, is emitting blue light.

When Li Yi saw this thing, a look of surprise immediately flashed on his face. He picked up the stone in his hand and shined it against the sun. The blue sky was really beautiful.

This blue stone is called gall alum and can be used to produce sulfuric acid. Thousands of years ago, ancient Chinese alchemists had learned to use gall alum to produce sulfuric acid.

Hu Gangzi, an alchemist of the Tang Dynasty, produced the first sulfuric acid in human history through the burning method in the seventh century AD, hundreds of years earlier than in the West.

Sulfuric acid is known as the "mother of industry" and is widely used in all walks of life, especially chemical inventions, which can only be carried out with sulfuric acid. With sulfuric acid, whether it is the final product needed by the military industry or some inventions in the handicraft industry

, can all be started.

Li Yi entered the workshop and saw the craftsmen working hard and sweating profusely. Master Liu was also busy giving instructions, with beads of sweat hanging on his forehead. When he saw Li Yi coming in, he wiped a handful of hot sweat and came up to him: "Little

My benefactor, you are finally back."

He has encountered too many things recently, so he hasn't been back for a long time. Li Yi smiled and said: "A lot of things have happened recently. Master Liu, how is the situation here?"

Nowadays, the craftsmen in Anxin are managed by Wan Lao and Liu Dajiang. Because Wan Lao is old, he rarely takes care of things. Liu Dajiang is the person in charge here.

"I saw a lot of alum piled up outside. Is there anything fishy about it?" Li Yi asked.

Liu Dajiang smiled and said: "Little benefactor, I guessed it right. We were studying the alcohol you mentioned some time ago. We have indeed gained some insights in the past few days. Come and take a look with me."

Master Liu took Li Yi to a warehouse where many wine tanks were stored. From a distance, he could smell the strong aroma of wine.

Some of the assistant apprentices were surrounding the wine vat, stretching their necks as if there were treasures in the wine vat. Li Yi was curious and walked over quickly. When he came to the wine vat, he saw that there were mountains of wine in the vat.

The shape of the wine mash is clear, and the clear wine pulp is seeping out of the wine mash.

Although the word "wine" appeared very early in ancient China, after thousands of years, most of them are not the soju we are familiar with, but low-alcohol wines such as rice wine and sake. The brewing method is not through distillation.

Instead, grind the rice into powder, steam it, spread it out and let it cool. Sprinkle rice flour with malted rice, sprinkle a layer of malted rice with a layer of rice flour, repeat this until it is almost done and then build it into a mountain shape. In order to facilitate fermentation, it is also pressed.

tight.

Then cover it with a clean cloth and let it ferment. After a while, the wine pulp will seep out. In order to prevent the alcohol from evaporating, add water to the wine tank to dissolve the alcohol in the water for storage.

After the fermentation is complete, and then processed, you can get drinking wine.

These wines were prepared for experiments, and of course they were not to be drunk casually, so many apprentices looked greedy.

The wine mash has already oozed wine, and it has been fermented for a long time. Although it is only a little bit of wine mash, the aroma is tangy and very tempting. Li Yi twitched his nose. An apprentice scooped up a small half of the bowl with a bowl, held it with both hands, and handed it to

In front of Li Yi: "Little benefactor, this is the wine we brewed ourselves, you can try it!"

After speaking, he looked at Li Yi, a little nervous.

Li Yi's reputation in Anxin is very high. Both apprentices and craftsmen respect and admire Li Yi very much, and hope that Li Yi will affirm him.

Li Yi smiled at him, looked at the drink, and said, "Then I'll try it."

After taking a sip, it tasted good. He smiled and said, "It tastes good. The wine you make is good!"

Li Yi's affirmation made them feel even more excited. They were all filled with joy and kept saying: "Thank you, little benefactor!"

These wines are brewed and cannot yet produce alcohol. Only after distillation can the concentration of the wine be increased.

In response to these, Li Yi has drawn a drawing of a distiller for Master Liu. They have already built it and produced some high-concentration spirits.

There is spirit, sulfuric acid, and zeolite, and a medicine can be made. This medicine is called ether, and its status can be regarded as a milestone in the history of medicine! Ether requires sulfuric acid as a catalyst.

The full name of the drug Li Yi wants to make should be the highly effective anesthetic ether. Ether is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry to relieve patients' pain. If you can develop ether yourself, it will not only improve the current medical capabilities, but also add a very profitable product.

Anesthetics now have broad market prospects. In ancient times, medical treatment was inseparable from anesthetics. Bian Que used "poisonous wine" to charm people, which was the earliest anesthetic. Hua Tuo's "Ma Fei San" took anesthetics a step further.

, much appreciated by the world.

The preparation of diethyl ether is actually not difficult. As long as you have alcohol, sulfuric acid, and zeolite, you can make it. Sulfuric acid is a catalyst for the production of diethyl ether. In theory, it will participate in chemical reactions but is not consumed. In actual production, there must be loss of sulfuric acid, but it is just a loss.

Not much, a little alum can make at least dozens of kilograms of concentrated sulfuric acid, enough to produce hundreds or thousands of kilograms of ether.

The only difficulty in using alcohol to produce ether is that it requires a high concentration of alcohol, preferably close to 100%, otherwise a disproportionation reaction will occur. If you use wine on the market, these wines mainly come from the brewing industry, and their concentration is no more than 10%.

At tens to twenty degrees, if you use today's wine, just increasing the concentration will be a big trouble, not to mention that today's wine contains a lot of sediment, which is not conducive to chemical reactions.

This requires the alcohol to be concentrated, and the distiller developed by Liu Dajiang and his colleagues is working, and distilled liquor can be obtained. The concentration of distilled liquor is at most 70 or 80 degrees, which is still far from the required concentration. However, this

It is not difficult to solve, as long as there is zeolite. Zeolite is widely found in nature. With it, it is not a problem to concentrate the dry wine of 70 to 80 degrees to 100%. Once these conditions are met, an efficient anesthetic such as ether can be used.

If it can be released, the pain of patients will be greatly reduced. It can not only improve the medical treatment of Ming Dynasty, but also make money, which is exactly what Li Yi wants.

"Master Liu, please make some wine for me to see." Li Yi called Master Liu and gave some instructions.

Master Liu quickly went down to prepare.

More and more wine seeped out of the wine mash. The guys added a few buckets of water, and the wine in the vat was temporarily over. All that was left was to wait for it to ferment naturally. This process was very long and took three or two days.

The apprentices wrapped the wine mash in cloth and placed it on a shelf with a bluestone slab on top, like pressing tofu. The wine mash flowed out and flowed into the vat, making a gurgling sound.

There are more than a dozen wine jars in a large cauldron next to it. The outside of the wine jars is soaked in water. Add firewood under the cauldron. The temperature rises and the water keeps emitting steam. This step is necessary to cook the wine and maintain its quality.

, without this step, the wine would not be able to be stored for a long time, and there would be no famous wine like "Ner's Red".

Just two people can watch the pressing and boiling. Master Liu arranged for two apprentices to stay behind and take the others to make the wine. Li Yi was not familiar with winemaking and was still a little curious about these winemaking processes, so he naturally wanted to follow him to understand.

The music room is at the back of the brewery, and we arrived quickly. Master Liu opened the door. Everyone filed in. As soon as they entered, a strong smell of mold hit their faces, making Li Yi's nose twitch.

The Qu Room is a large and solid earthen house with windows on the wall. The windows are covered tightly and the light is very dark. The reason why the windows are covered is to prevent the air flow from taking away heat, because the Qu room

After it is cooked, it will undergo a long fermentation. If the temperature is high, the time can be greatly shortened and the efficiency improved.

If the temperature is too high, open the windows and let the air flow to take away some of the heat energy. This is the most primitive method of temperature regulation.

There are more than one hundred or two hundred molds in the room, rectangular in shape. Next to it is a large wooden barrel filled with rice noodles, which is filled with steamed rice noodles. Without waiting for Master Liu's instructions, the apprentice sprinkles the rice noodles with the rice noodles, and then sprinkles the rice noodles with the rice noodles.

Sprinkle a little spice and mix evenly.

Sprinkling spices is to increase the aroma of wine. It is an ancient method and is still used today.

Then sprinkle the rice flour evenly into the curved mold and press it tightly. Sprinkle it again, press it again, and repeat until the curved mold is full. Close the lid. A craftsman next to you said: "It's bent."

The apprentices stood on the cover, raised and lowered their feet, and put down their feet, as if they were doing a tap dance, stepping on the mold.

Count the times while stepping.

The reason why we need to tap music is to compact the music and speed up the fermentation. There is only one trick, which is to make the force even. In ancient times, tapping music was very important. A box of music required nearly two hundred taps to be completed.

For a large wine shop, dozens of people are needed to complete this step alone, and each person steps a fixed number of times, such as five steps per person.

Modern brewing enterprises all use machines to operate, and no longer use people to step on the music, and their efficiency is greatly improved.

Several apprentices took turns in the battle and kept tapping. After one step, they continued to step one hundred, seventeen or eighty times before finishing a box of music and moving it aside.

The emergence of koji is a major event in the history of winemaking and can be called a milestone. The earliest place where winemaking was made was Sanqu. The so-called Sanqu is to mix the koji, sprinkle it on the ground, and let it ferment naturally. The shortcomings of this method are very obvious.

The reason is that the heat energy is lost, the temperature cannot rise, and the fermentation time is extremely long. It cannot be good if it takes less than ten days and a half. Secondly, there are not many effective ingredients, and the efficiency of grain utilization is not high, which is a waste of grain.

In the Western Han Dynasty, there was cake qu. The melody was kneaded into a ball with hands and put into a pile for fermentation. This method was improved compared to Sanqu, but its effect was still not good. By the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were qu molds, and "Qi Min Yao Shu" was called "Qi Min Yao Shu".

"Fan", put the mixed koji into the koji mold, press it tightly, and stack it together, which greatly improves the efficiency of making koji. Also, because this method produces much more effective ingredients, the utilization rate of grain land is greatly improved.

Improve, the quality of the wine will be better.

Chuanqu has been used until modern times, but modern brewing companies have a higher degree of automation.

Distillor koji is a great invention of our ancestors. Some people think it can be compared with the "Four Great Inventions". It is the earliest microbial technology. Distillor koji contains a large number of microorganisms and enzymes that secrete enzymes from microorganisms. It is a catalyst for wine making. It can well promote

Grain starch and protein are decomposed into sugars and amino acids, and then decomposed into ethanol, or alcohol, under the action of yeast.

Next, Master Liu sent someone to bring a still and began to make distilled wine.

At this time, there were very few aluminum plates and the price of copper plates was high. They could only be made of wood and rolled into pots for distilling liquor.

There are many kinds of distilled liquor. The main cauldron is mainly divided into two parts. One part is placed on the pot, which is cylindrical and about the height of a person. The pot is filled with water. After heating, the water turns into steam and is heated.

A round wooden board is placed on top of the pot, which can be used to hold the grain. The cauldron is filled with grain. The size of the cylindrical cauldron must be determined according to the actual situation.

The other part is like an inverted funnel. The difficulty lies in this cooling part, because wood and other objects are not good conductors of heat, so condensation is difficult.
Chapter completed!